Not Far from the Madding Crowd: With all the world’s troubles on his to-do list, Parsifal has his work cut out, suggests Hugo Shirley

Review of Parsifal, directed Visser, conducted Gatti; Dresden, 2026.

July 2026, Volume 20, Number 2, 81–3.

For his new Parsifal at the Semperoper, Floris Visser opts for a single revolving set: a beautifully built monastic ruin – Monsalvat Abbey he calls it – that has become a tourist attraction and site of pilgrimage. An information board stands centre-stage, with a couple of benches either side; to the left a little display offers postcards and memorabilia. The ruin is unveiled in its austere beauty early in the Prelude, but it doesn’t take long for the visitors to flood in: nuns; a school trip; visitors in wheelchairs and even a hospital bed; and, somewhat unexpectedly, climate protestors. A site of devotion is overcome by hustle and bustle.